Re: [PATCH v4 2/2] ThunderX2: Add Cavium ThunderX2 SoC UNCORE PMU driver

[Kim Phillips]

On Fri, 27 Apr 2018 10:30:27 +0100
Mark Rutland <mark.rutland@xxxxxxx> wrote:

> Hi Kim,
> 
> On Thu, Apr 26, 2018 at 05:06:24PM -0500, Kim Phillips wrote:
> > On Wed, 25 Apr 2018 14:30:47 +0530
> > Ganapatrao Kulkarni <ganapatrao.kulkarni@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > 
> > > +static int thunderx2_uncore_event_init(struct perf_event *event)
> 
> > This PMU driver can be made more user-friendly by not just silently
> > returning an error code such as -EINVAL, but by emitting a useful
> > message describing the specific error via dmesg.
> 
> As has previously been discussed on several occasions, patches which log
> to dmesg in a pmu::event_init() path at any level above pr_debug() are
> not acceptable -- dmesg is not intended as a mechanism to inform users
> of driver-specific constraints.

I disagree - drivers do it all the time, using dev_err(), dev_warn(), etc.

> I would appreciate if in future you could qualify your suggestion with
> the requirement that pr_debug() is used.

It shouldn't - the driver isn't being debugged, it's in regular use.

Thanks,

Kim